1. Never meant 2. The summer ends 3. Honestly? 4. For Sure 5. You know I should be leaving soon 6. But the regrets are killin me 7. I'll see you when we are both not so emotional 8. Stay home 9. The one with the wurlitzer

1. The spinning heart of the yo-yo lobby2. No sympathy for a sinking ship3. Resolution #94. Model UN5. The shape of punk that never came6. My cold war7. Filmed in front of a live studio audience8. Revolutions in graphic design9. I keep living the same day10. Subliminal testing11. Say goodbye to general Figment of the USS imagination

20090318

Chomp, released in 1983 by Athens, GA new wave band Pylon, has one of the best album covers ever. How can you go wrong with a giant picture of a T-Rex? Fortunately, the music on the record is just as awesome.

Pylon had a sound all their own - one highly regarded by fellow Athens acts of the same time such as R.E.M. and The B-52's. It was a killer combination of Vanessa Briscoe's yelp-to-growl vocals, Michael Lachowski's driving bass, Curtis Crowe's pulsating drumming and Randall Bewley's sharp, angular guitar. The material they created is bizarre and random, yet totally addictive and danceable.

Listing the personnel behind The Alps shouldprovide you with a rough idea of where this recordis headed: Tarentel's Jefre Cantu-Ledesma is joinedby Arp and ex-Tussle member Alexis Georgopoulosplus Troll's Scott Hewicker, who come together tocreate an utterly gorgeous, cinematic blend of vintagepsychedelia, Goblin-style bass grooves and melodiesthat sound like they've been extracted from an obscureBruno Nicolai or Fabio Frizzi score, never more so thanon the giallo fuzz tones of 'Labyrinths'.

Elsewhere 'Hallucinations' channels the spirit of the moreout there krautrock of the 1970s, featuring some especiallywonky detuning effects and tape saturated choral passages.

In a similar vein 'Cloud One' recruits a line in open-tunedguitar repetition, laying down a slack-stringed mantra overwhich modal keystrokes flounce around. To put a morecontemporary spin on all this, you might align 'Into TheBreeze' with the sort of material to be found on Air's early12"s, but if you had to restrict your palette of comparisonsto just one band throughout all this, you'd have to opt forPopol Vuh, who have clearly made a big impression onthe Alps' wonderfully old-fashioned blend of euro-psychsoundscapes and deftly defined song arcs.

20090316

Formed in London in 1980, the Legendary Pink Dots moved to Amsterdam in the middle of the decade. Members throughout the band's career have been Edward Ka-Spel (vocals, keyboards) and Phil Knight (keyboards), also known as the Silver Man, with a shifting supporting cast over the years. The Dots' music is by turns melodic pop and exotic psychedelia, with classical influences, sampling, and relentlessly dark, violent, apocalyptic lyrics. After several releases for Mirrodot and Inphaze during the early '80s, the group signed to Play It Again Sam distribution for 1985's The Lovers, and released much of their best material (1990's Crushed Velvet Apocalypse, 1991's The Maria Dimension) on the label. Even as the Legendary Pink Dots neared their two-decade anniversary, the group continued to tour Europe and America quite consistently, appreciated by several generations of dark industrial/goth audiences (and documented by the 2000 live album Farewell, Milky Way). After releasing Your Children Placate You from Premature Graves in spring of 2006, the band embarked on their 25th anniversary tour.More cohesive than Island of Jewels and more streamlined than Asylum, Any Day Now stands as one of The Legendary Pink Dots' best albums of the ‘80s, ex-aequo with The Tower. There is no specific unifying theme this time, although alienation and estrangement seem to permeate the whole project. The Dots' keyboard patches were starting to get old by 1988, but in retrospect, this gives the album a vaguely retro charm. Edward Ka-Spel is in top songwriting shape, with "Casting the Runes," "A Strychnine Kiss" and "Neon Mariners" standing out as particularly catchy songs. The latter is especially haunting, thanks to careful arrangements and one of Ka-Spel's trademark vocal deliveries. Any Day Now is noteworthy for its lack of long experimental tracks, which (without unfairly diminishing the artistic interest of such efforts) makes the album somewhat more accessible to newcomers. The only extended track is the 10-minute "Waiting for the Cloud," but it is through-written, with the song proper in the first half (and a strong one at that), followed by an instrumental development that showcases why the Dots were often perceived as the unlikely link between Progressive Rock and Industrial, and a final recap of the song. Patrick Wright's violin is mixed somewhat higher on this album, giving more presence to his elegant lines. The original Bias release consisted of nine tracks (ending with "Cloud Zero"). Subsequent reissues added the complete Under Glass EP released the same year, a set of three weaker and somewhat more mainstream songs, including some slap bass in "The Plasma Twins" and a stadium rock-like double solo of violin and electric guitar at the end of "The Light In My Little Girls Eyes." (allmusic)

It's been a while since we had the last release from experimental lounge-funk progenitors Tipsy, but here they are, making a return on Ipecac with sixteen new excursions into jazzy exotica and avant-garde assaults on easy listening. Despite their apparent obscurity, in the years since they started out Tipsy have appeared in the background on TV shows like Sex And The City and The Sopranos, meaning that they've stealthily assumed the muzak disguise they've always toyed around with. On Buzzz there's less in the way of loop and sample-based composition than has been evident on previous outings, placing renewed emphasis on live instrumentation (there are vocals on here too: Japanese singer Coppe joins in on 'Hot Banana' for some excellent Pizzicato Five-style silliness), but there's still a beguilingly off-filter, People Like Us feel to tracks like 'See The Beauty, Touch The Magic'.(boomkat)

Strut Records’ Inspiration Information series continues with Ethiopian jazz composer/arranger Mulatu Astatke (best known in the States for Jim Jarmusch’s use of his music in the film Broken Flowers and for his cuts found on the Ethiopiques comps) and British soul-jazz/psych troupe the Heliocentrics. Due out April 14, this collaboration is my favorite in the series so far. Think James Brown, David Axelrod, and Sun Ra go to Addis Ababa, smoke some killer weed, and lay down the jazz-funk of the spheres, aglow with eerie melodies and throbbing with inventive rhythms.

Quarterstick Records, Touch and Go's partner label for the last 17-plus years, is pleased to welcome San Francisco-based drum punk trio Mi Ami to the folds. Featuring two key members of Dischord's hyper-percussive Black Eyes (Daniel Martin-McCormick on vocals and guitar, and Jacob Long on bass) as well as Damon Palermo on drums, Mi Ami builds on the promise of Black Eyes' spastic energy and renowned live performances, but steers it into a more focused, volatile, and personal direction.

Mi Ami's first single on Quarterstick, Echononecho, will be released as a 12" and digitally January 27, 2009, with the follow-up full length, Watersports, out February 17, 2009. The band fully takes flight and thrives in the live setting, with shows turning into all-out pulsating rhythmic throwdowns, so save up some energy and be sure to catch them on their extensive tours throughout 2009

Detroit proto-punk/garage rock three-some's entire collection of recorded material, finally seeing the light of day 34 years after being recorded. An excellent (if all too short) glimpse into a future that never was from a band that burned brightly and then faded into memory, but for a few very rare 7" singles the band self-released in '75.

"The Shaggs are real, pure, unaffected by outside influences. Their music is different, it is theirs alone. They believe in it, live it. It is a part of them and they are a part of it. Of all contemporary acts in the world today, perhaps only the Shaggs do what others would like to do, and that is perform only what they believe in, what they feel, not what others think the Shaggs should feel.The Shaggs love you, and love to perform for you. You may love their music or you may not, but whatever you feel, at last you know you can listen to artists who are real. They will not change their music or style to meet the whims of a frustrated world. You should appreciate this because you know they are pure what more can you ask?Betty, Helen and Dorothy Wiggin are the Shaggs. They are sisters and members of a large family where mutual respect and love for each other is at an unbelievable high. They study and practice together, encouraged and helped by those around them. Betty, Helen and Dorothy live in a small town in New Hampshire, in an atmosphere which has encouraged them to develop their music unaffected by outside influences. They are happy people and love what they are doing. They do it because they love it".Philosophy of the World liner notes